A Portrait of Crown Princess Märtha of Norway Who Never Became Queen (1901-1954)
Rachel Faldet
The Beginning of My Family’s WWII Story
My grandfather, a volunteer air-raid warden during WWII in my mother’s Washington, D.C., neighborhood, is a Lutheran pastor. In March 1944, he’s in charge of publicity and protocol for the outdoor dedication ceremony marking the opening of the Washington Lutheran Service Center. It is one of about 300 home-away-from-home canteens for Lutheran servicemen and servicewomen stationed throughout the world. In consultation with the U.S. State Department, he creates a hierarchical seating chart for invited dignitaries including top military officials and Allied Nations ambassadors. Two thousand people or so, including my mother and grandmother, will stand.
The open-to-the-public ceremony in Lafayette Park, close to the White House, starts within hours. My mother’s 13th birthday is soon. She doesn’t want to wear rayon stockings. They’re ugly and saggy. Coveted nylon for manufacturing smooth stockings is being used for parachutes and airplane cords for the war effort. My grandmother insists my mother wear good shoes with her pretty outfit, not bobby socks and scuffed-up saddle shoes.
Crown Princess Märtha of Norway, and her three children, will attend the gala as special guests. She is representing Lutherans in all Scandinavian countries. My grandfather has shown my mother his copy of a publicity photograph of the beautiful fur-coat-and-pearl-clad refugee in the U.S. Her husband, Crown Prince Olav, and father-inlaw, King Haakon VII, are not coming, having joined the exiled Norwegian government based in London.
With this family story, I was lured into the mystique of Märtha’s royal life and her connection to the United States.
Märtha’s Swedish Childhood
The second daughter of Prince Carl of Sweden and Princess Ingeborg of Denmark, Märtha Sofia Lovisa Dagmar Thyra was born on March 28, 1901, in Stockholm, a city of water and archipelagoes on Sweden’s east coast, where Lake Mälaren flows into the Baltic Sea. Oscar II, Märtha’s paternal grandfather, was King of Norway and Sweden; in 1905 he renounced his claim to the Norwegian throne after the dissolution of the kingdom-union between Sweden and Norway. As a young child, Märtha probably had no inkling that her future in-laws would be tapped for newly independent Norway’s throne.
The princess received a “normal childhood education” and then “studied pediatric nursing, cooking and sewing. She was said to excel at all three: she had a natural ease with children, was a whiz with sauces, and more than one magazine of the time featured a picture of her in ‘a fashionable selfsewn dress.’”1 Märtha and her two sisters – Margaretha (Princess Axel of Denmark) and Astrid (Queen of the Belgians briefly before dying in a car accident at age 29) – graced covers of a series of cookbooks, Prinsessornas Kokbok, by home economics teacher Jenny Åkerström (1867-1957). The trio were Åkerström’s household school pupils and fans of her Green Cake recipe. The popular Scandinavian marzipancovered layered sponge cake featuring dollops of whipped cream (and sometimes fruit and nuts) is called Princess Cake in their honor. Märtha’s brother Prince Carl, given a Belgian title of Prince Bernadotte after relinquishing Swedish succession rights, outlived his siblings.
Sweden and Norway Unite through Love
Princess Märtha of Sweden and Crown Prince Olav of Norway met in childhood. Social or political gatherings of royal houses of Europe were, in a sense, family reunions. Märtha’s mother was one of Olav’s father’s sisters. Eighteen-year-old Olav “first really noticed his Swedish cousin’s charming ways at his paternal grandmother’s 70th birthday party” in Denmark in 1921.2 Märtha was 20. In 1925, sister-princesses Märtha and Astrid were Swedish royal representatives at Olav’s maternal grandmother’s (Dowager Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom) funeral in England. Olav had completed a three-year program at the Norwegian Military Academy. A keen athlete in ski-jumping and sailing, he had temporarily left his studies at Oxford to attend the November service.
Twenty-seven-year-old Märtha and 25-year-old Olav became “secretly engaged during the 1928 Summer Olympic Games in Amsterdam.”3 The heir to the throne was a member of the Norwegian Olympic crew of the six-meter boat, Norna, which won a gold medal. Märtha was visiting Astrid in Brussels, not far from Holland. The betrothed cousins’ well-received formal announcement was made in January 1929. Royal matches were often loveless unions between political pawns, but Olav and Märtha loved each other. As a bonus, “It was taken as a sign that there was no longer any tension following the dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden” and “an excellent match in terms of strengthening royal ties.”4
Simulated pearl tops each on two pointed straight pins. These were accompanied by a linen-textured white cardboard card with the inscription, “To Her Royal Highness, Crown Princess Märtha of Norway 1939” and were used for a corsage. They were found in a wastebasket at the Winneshiek Hotel after her visit.
Three rooms and two bathrooms at the Winneshiek Hotel had been redecorated exclusively for Crown Princess Märtha and Crown Prince Olav. Märtha’s bedroom was done in soft tones of gray, apricot, and blue with an accent of deep rose, which according to the May 19, 1939, Decorah Public Opinion, had a “delightfully feminine air.” 1987.154.001, Vesterheim Collection—Gift of Agnes Forde.
When Märtha, wearing a sea-green coat trimmed with a white fur collar, and her parents arrived in Oslo a few days ahead of the wedding, thousands cheered in a city decorated with flags, garlands, and ice-block obelisks. The March 21, 1929, morning ceremony was at Vår Frelsers church (Oslo Cathedral). Draped in a cope of golden brocade, Bishop John Lunde delivered a sermon based on “Have faith in God” (Mark 11:22). Attended by eight bridesmaids, the bride “wore a gown of white silver lamé with a four-metre-long train, embroidered with lilies and decorated with pearls and sequins.” A “tiara of orange blossoms and topped with a tiny wreath of myrtle” secured her long veil. The white lilies in her bouquet “become known as Märtha lilies” in Norway.5
The Duke of York (father of the United Kingdom’s future Queen Elizabeth II) served as best man. In front of 1,600 invited guests, the cousins destined-to-be monarchs wore sash-and-insignia-adorned uniforms. As Märtha and her husband waved in a horse-drawn carriage through the streets of Oslo after the wedding luncheon, within the jubilant throngs were children dressed “in the red, white, and blue of the Norwegian flag and yellow and blue of the Swedish flag with the letters M and O on their chests.”6
Through marriage, Princess Märtha of Sweden became Crown Princess Märtha of Norway: predicted to eventually become, as was her England-born mother-in-law, a beloved immigrant queen. Unlike her mother-in-law, Queen Maud, circumstances cast Märtha as a living symbol of cultural identity, home, and hope for Norwegian immigrants across the Atlantic Ocean, whose hearts held their personal experience of earlier life in Norway; and their Norwegian-American children and grandchildren who learned about the old country through stories and tradition. Within days, the newlyweds graced the cover of Time magazine in the United States.
1939 U.S. Train / Road Trip
While multitudes of Norwegians and their descendants lived freely in the new land, Europe was militarizing for World War II. The royals recognized that Norway should cultivate its friendly ties with the United States, a powerful democracy, through a goodwill tour. In late November 1938, thrilling news spread to the Midwest that Olav and Märtha’s itinerary included Decorah, Iowa. The city of 5,000 was home to the oldest Norwegian-founded college in the U.S. and the ethnic museum now called Vesterheim. Dr. T. Stabo, who emigrated from the fatherland in 1905, began coordinating Decorah’s public and private festivities. In his role as the only Norwegian vice-consul in Iowa, the local medical doctor answered “long distance phone calls from distant newspapers for particulars about the event,”7 educated locals in etiquette on curtseying (not necessary) and how to address them (Your Royal Highness), anticipated thousands in Iowa’s only official stop. Decorah’s streets were “repaired, parks cleaned and seeded, [and] store windows brightened.”8
In mid-April 1939 the Crown Princess and Crown Prince sailed the Oslofjord to New York harbor to commence their two-plus-month trip across the United States, leaving their children Ragnhild, Astrid, and Harald at home. (Queen Maud had died the previous November, so they were under the care of their grandfather.) The Norwegian entourage included aide-de-camp Colonel N.R. Østgaard and his wife, Mrs. Ragni Østgaard, lady-in-waiting: companions to the couple during peacetime and world war. Photos in a commemorative book, Med Kronprinsparet På Amerikaferden, chronicled folkdancers, hospital nurses, horseback riders, college students,
singers, dignitaries, an old assistant who showed them Edison’s first lightbulb, Norwegian-heritage movie stars, and other wellwishers welcoming the Scandinavian royalty.
Märtha and Olav were magnets. A gathering held in New York City’s Metropolitan Opera House was “filled from floor to ceiling with circa 4,000 Norwegian Americans.” Fifty-thousand people showed up for a celebratory parade hosted by Grand Forks, North Dakota. In Glacier National Park the royals were “adopted into the Blackfeet Tribe . . . with the names Rising Wolf and Flying Eagle.” At the Hippodrome in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, Olav and Märtha worshiped at a “poignant church service in Norwegian” with 10,000 people. East Coast visits with President Franklin D. Roosevelt bookended their journey.9
Before Their Royal Highnesses’ May 6 arrival in Decorah (via Zephyr train and motor caravan), the May 2, 1939 Decorah Public Opinion ran a lengthy press release on their family’s “happy home.” Southwest of Oslo, Skaugum farm estate had “about 125 acres of highly cultivated soil and some 175 acres of fine timberland.” The Royal Family’s home included a “garden with clipped boxwood hedges and lots of roses,” orchards of “more than 1,500 fruit trees,” and “60 pedigreed cows; some . . . of the well-bred Swedish type.” From the house’s terrace, the Olso-Fjord view “gladdens the heart of Norway’s Sailor Prince.” The princess-mother took care of three offspring who “romp on velvety green lawns” and had a playhouse constructed of “brown-stained logs from the forest,” which contained “the cutest little fireplace you ever saw.” The message: royal, but not “formal palace” people.
Crown Princess Märtha’s portrayal to U.S. readers was as a “modern housewife” skillfully practicing “household arts” in an adopted country. “Exceedingly rare red” amaryllis were her favorite flowers; she wasn’t keen on cactus. Rooms were “filled with flowers, which the Crown Princess herself arranged with a delightful artistic understanding of colors.” Musical, she also “paint[ed] lampshades” and “learned to speak Norwegian like a native.” Princess Ingeborg, her mother, had embroidered “beautiful floral designs” on tapestries covering eight chairs and a sofa in Märtha’s salon, “one of the most personal rooms of the mansion.” Almost as an afterthought, the unnamed writer revealed the anticipated female guest was “very much interested in the social progress of Norway, as well as in the arts and crafts.”10
By the time the royals and their entourage arrived in Decorah late afternoon on Saturday, the March “flu, flu, flu” that had been plaguing the city and Luther College community was not a worry.11 Ten thousand people showed up, though at least three people basking in the glow of royalty had their pockets picked. After welcoming ceremonies held downtown, the guests freshened up in a suite of Winneshiek Hotel rooms redecorated for them. Because the hotel landlords learned that Märtha painted in watercolors, rather than oils, framed watercolor paintings hung on the walls. Wash cloths were crocheted; towels, too, were handmade.
At Dr. Stabo’s house, royals and a small group of dignitaries had a five-course dinner featuring fruit cocktail glasses “edged in colored sugar of red, white, and blue to carry out the color scheme,” a silver salt cellar shaped like a Viking ship, and “individual ice cream in the form of roses, calla lilies, daisies, and tulips.” Next, they attended a public reception in Luther’s gymnasium; Olav received an honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law, honoris causa, from Luther. Märtha received only a “memento.” The Crown Princess dazzled evening crowds in her pale gray chiffon floral motif
Dinnerware and serving piece. The royal couple and guests dined on a set of Bavarian china at the home of Dr. Trond Stabo on Saturday evening before the reception at Luther College. According to the May 9, 1939, Decorah Public Opinion, there were two tables, each seating 12 people. “In the center of the table was a large bouquet of American Beauty roses. At each end were smaller bouquets of blue delphiniums and white daisies in cut glass bowls. In between were crystal candle holders with long white tapers. Gold and white china was set off by an array of crystal at each place.” The china set, which included service for 12 with extra cups and serving pieces, belonged to Einar Lund, editor of Decorah-Posten from 1946-1962, and his wife Lully Lund. 2001.022.002 Vesterheim Collection—Gift of Camilla Haugen Cai.
evening gown, violet-colored jacket edged in gray fur, showy corsage, diamond tiara, pearl earrings, and four-stranded pearl necklace.12
On Sunday, May 7, the Norwegian duo drew 15,000 people to town. Their Royal Highnesses attended a noon luncheon and program in Luther’s gymnasium. More than 350 people had pre-purchased $3-a-plate tickets for the meal featuring baked whole ham, asparagus tips, and apple pie à la mode. After greetings from the editor of Decorah-Posten, a nationally distributed Norwegian-language newspaper, and music from Luther’s Women’s Chorus and Luren Sangforening, Olav presented gifts from the National Association of Museums in Norway to the Norwegian-American Historical Museum (now Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum). Carpenters had built more cabinets in anticipation of these treasured objects, including textiles, silver, and furniture. Märtha’s husband’s farewell speech, delivered from the front steps of the gymnasium, cemented ethnic connection and friendship. Radio stations as far away as Spokane, Washington, broadcast highlights of the two-day visit.
One-hundred-year-old Norwegian immigrant from Lyngdal, Isak Johnsen, summed up the Decorah festivities when he said, “Det var godt du kom, Olav.” (“It is good that you came, Olav.”)13
That July of 1939, the royal entourage sailed home.
Re-Crossing the Atlantic During WWII
In April 1940, Norway was pushed out of neutrality and forced into a war of resistance against an unwanted occupation by the German Reich, which targeted Skaugum, the Royal Family, and the government. Leaving her husband and father-in-law to unknown futures in an invaded Norway, 39-year-old Märtha and the three children fled to neutral Sweden. Even in Märtha’s native country, the family’s safety was in question. Their rescuer was President Franklin D. Roosevelt who invited Märtha and the children to take refuge in the U.S. They left Sweden in August 1940; this protected three-year-old Prince Harald from a German plan to make him a “puppet king.”14 Ragnhild was ten and Astrid eight. The refugees, including lady-in-waiting Mrs. Østgaard and her young son, sailed in the American Legion across the Atlantic.
Although a September 3, 1940, Decorah Journal headline wishfully declared, “Sad Change in Year for Crown Princess Märtha, Now a Refugee; Home in Decorah is Possibility,” the Norwegian government secured Pook’s Hill, a Tudor-style mansion in Bethesda, Maryland, not far from the nation’s capital. A symbol of a besieged country, Märtha paid official visits, lectured, sent relief aid, and took part in relief operations for other refugees. Her mission was to keep the plight of Norwegians alive in hopes that Norway would receive U.S. aid during the horrific war. She accompanied President Roosevelt via car to the September 16, 1942, Navy Yard ceremony in which the U.S. presented a submarine-chaser to Norway. After meeting key Norwegian crew members aboard the ship, Märtha sat by FDR in the car as he delivered his “Look to Norway” speech. In English, she spoke of efforts to regain once again her “free and happy” country.15
As a frequent White House guest, Märtha’s friendship with and influence on the President was, and is still, debated, though the 1940s press typically considered the topic taboo. Silence around their relationship is not surprising as press photographers even concealed FDR’s inability to walk unaided due to polio. And notably, detailed information is scarce about the Crown Princess in mid-20th century books focused on
Norwegian history (translated from Norwegian or composed in English), even though she lived apart from her husband Olav to keep their son Prince Harald, second in line to the throne, free and alive.
However, in the FDR Day By Day 1933-1945 chronology, housed in the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, a “Princess Märtha” search brings up over a hundred days with FDR. The Crown Princess was with the U.S. President for tea, for dinner, for swimming, as an overnight guest, as motoring companion (he drove a modified hands-onlyoperated car), as boating companion, and as part of the White House entourage to witness the State of the Union address. She accompanied FDR on late-evening and early-morning train journeys to and from days long stints at Hyde Park, his hometown and refuge near the Hudson River. Upon return, she was often a White House breakfast guest before heading to Pook’s Hill. Occasionally, Crown Prince Olav made the dangerous voyage to visit Märtha and the children, but mostly war efforts to liberate the Norwegians from the Nazis kept him in England.
Märtha, solo-parenting while trying to persuade the Allies that the small Norwegian nation was worthy of their military help, and a U.S. President, burdened with health problems in the midst of international and domestic crises, found relief and happiness in each other’s company. While the President had massive political power, Märtha’s royal status also elevated her above ordinary people. Often, she was an elegant presence at large group dinners honoring distinguished White House guests. Some evenings she and Mrs. Østgaard were FDR’s only dinner guests. At times, Märtha was the President’s sole evening companion. On May 7, 1943, after he drove Märtha from Pook’s Hill to the White House, for instance, the two of them spent 7:30 p.m. to 12:35 a.m. together. Earlier that day, FDR had held a press conference and met with high-powered men including the Spanish Ambassador, Postmaster General, and Cabinet. In her diary entries, Margaret “Daisy” Suckley, FDR’s cousin and member of his inner circle, wrote, “He is devoted to her, and gets much pleasure out of knowing her and being able to be such a help to her . . . she is gentle & sympathetic, has a sense of humor & is very responsive.”16
Details about Märtha’s official duties representing Norway, social activities, and fashionable attire were newspaper fodder nationwide. On October 31, 1941, the Detroit Evening Times ran a story about the handiwork exhibit at New York City’s Women’s National Exposition sponsored by a cohort of female royals – including Märtha – and government officials’ wives from countries “dominated by Germany.” With “steady hands – steady nerves” as its motto, displays of weavings, jewelry, embroidery, and other crafts urged women to “ward off jitters” through wartime handiwork. The capital city’s Evening Star March 18, 1942, society page headlined, “Crown Prince Olav and Crown Princess Märtha of Norway are Concert Guests of Mrs. Roosevelt.” The article detailed aspects of the President’s wife’s “becoming gown of black,” but lingered more on beautiful Märtha who “wore violet crepe made high in the back, cut square in the front and having very short sleeves slightly puffed. About her neck she wore several strands of pearls and pearl drop earrings.” Mrs. Roosevelt’s other female guest, a Mrs. Greene, only warranted the comment “was in beige lace.”
After five years in exile, on June 7, 1945, Crown Princess Märtha, the children, and King Haakon VII returned by sea to a liberated Norway, welcomed into Oslo Fjord by hundreds of small craft filled with joyous Norwegians. Crown Prince Olav,
Crown Prince Olav, Crown Princess Märtha, and their children listen to a speaker at the Washington Lutheran Service Center dedication. Aide-de-camp Colonel N.R. Østgaard and lady-in-waiting Mrs. Ragni Østgaard are seated at the left-hand corner of the raised platform. Both husbands and wives of the couples – the royal pair and the attendants – were separated from each other during World War II.
Photo from private family collection of the author.
Princess Ragnhild (front left), Princess Astrid (center), and Prince Harald (front right) stand near their parents Crown Prince Olav and Crown Princess Märtha. Behind them are military and church officials participating in the dedication ceremony of the Washington Lutheran Service Center. Note that the sisters are wearing matching coats and hats and saggy stockings.
Photo from private family collection of the author.
who had sailed to Norway in May as head of the armed forces, welcomed his family home. The U.S. President, Norway’s rescuer-turned-friend, had died that April, during his fourth term in office.
Crown Princess Märtha died on April 5, 1954, at age 53. Her husband never remarried; in 1957, upon the death of King Haakon, Olav V became a king without a queen.
As if waving hello or goodbye to the U.S., a bronze statue of pearl-clad Crown Princess Märtha has stood on Norwegian Embassy grounds in Washington, D.C. since 2005. Funded by the Norwegian-American Foundation, it marks the 100th anniversary of the dissolution of the Sweden-Norway union. According to Loren Anderson, Chair of the Foundation’s Board, Märtha “symbolizes the strength of Norway and the statue celebrates the very important relationship between Norway and the United States.”
The Ending of My Family’s WWII Story
My mother and grandmother wait inside the Washington Lutheran Service Center for the March 26, 1944, outdoor dedication ceremony in Lafayette Park to begin. My grandfather is greeting dignitaries, consulting his State Department seating protocol diagram. Unexpectedly, Crown Prince Olav steps out of a limousine with his family and throws off the seating chart. Royalty tops ambassadors, military officials, and government ministers.
Crown Princess Märtha and the three children – 13-yearold Ragnhild, 12-year-old Astrid, and seven-year-old Harald – are waiting in the same room as my mother, close to her, before they are ushered outside to their assigned folding chairs on a raised platform. Harald, in the fashion for young royal boys, is wearing short pants even in cold weather. My mother feels a strong connection with the pair of little princesses; their rayon stockings, like hers, are ugly and saggy.
The Crown Princess’s birthday, like my mother’s, is soon, but my mother doesn’t know this. Princess Märtha will be 43, and, most likely, Olav’s visit is her birthday present.
My mother’s thrill of seeing the royals is still great in her mind as she retells her long-ago experience, as is her regret.
“My mother and I should have walked over to them and said hello.” However, when Crown Prince Olav and his aide-decamp, N.R. Østgaard, show up temporarily from their exile in London, my grandfather boldly asks the surprise royal guest, “What should I call you?” Crown Prince Olav, so the story goes, answers, “Call me whatever you want.”
Decades later, my mother bequeathed my grandfather’s publicity photograph of Crown Princess Märtha to me. She is wearing a jeweled Norwegian flag brooch near her heart.
Footnotes
1Bjaaland, Patricia C. The Norwegian Royal Family. Oslo: Tano, 1986, 37.
²Bjaaland, 38.
3The Royal House of Norway, https://www.royalcourt.no, 2022.
4The Royal House of Norway, https://www.royalcourt.no, 2022.
5The Royal House of Norway, https://www.royalcourt.no, 2022.
6Bjaaland, Patricia C. The Norwegian Royal Family. Oslo: Tano, 1986, 41-42.
7Winneshiek County Newspaper Archives. https:// winneshiekcounty.advantage-preservation.com, 2022. Decorah Journal Nov. 29, 1938.
8Winneshiek County Newspaper Archives. https:// winneshiekcounty.advantage-preservation.com, 2022.
Decorah Public Opinion April 18, 1939.
9Med Kronprinsparet På Amerikaferden. Oslo: Johan Grundt Tanum, 1939.
10Winneshiek County Newspaper Archives. https:// winneshiekcounty.advantage-preservation.com, 2022. Decorah Public Opinion May 2, 1939.
11Winneshiek County Newspaper Archives. https:// winneshiekcounty.advantage-preservation.com, 2022. Decorah Journal March 2, 1939.
12Winneshiek County Newspaper Archives. https:// winneshiekcounty.advantage-preservation.com, 2022.
Decorah Public Opinion May 9, 1939.
13Med Kronprinsparet På Amerikaferden. Oslo: Johan Grundt Tanum, 1939.
14Derry, T. K. A History of Modern Norway 1814-1972. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973.
15“Let Them Look to Norway – The Speech” https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=YfnnK76nVt0.
16Ward, Geoffrey C., ed. Closest Companion: The Unknown Story of the Intimate Friendship between Franklin Roosevelt and Margaret Suckley. Boston: Houghton, 1995. 242-243.
Sources
All For Norway! The Occasion of H.M. King Haakon’s 70th Birthday. London: The Royal Norwegian Government’s Information Office, 1942.
Andersen, Sarah. Personal interview. September 2021. Anderson, Loren. Zoom interview. October 2021.
Bjaaland, Patricia C. The Norwegian Royal Family. Oslo: Tano, 1986.
Derry, T. K. A History of Modern Norway 1814-1972. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973.
FDR: Day By Day. http://www.fdrlibrary.maris.edu/daybyday, 2022.
Greipsland, Torbjørn, ed. Olav V: A King and His Church. Oslo: Lunde Publishing, 1987.
Library of Congress website. Chronicling America. https:// www.loc.gov, 2022.
“Let Them Look to Norway – The Speech” https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=YfnnK76nVt0
Med Kronprinsparet På Amerikaferden. Oslo: Johan Grundt Tanum, 1939.
Michael, Maurice. Haakon, King of Norway. London: Ruskin House, 1958.
Pfeiffer, J. Adrian. Unpublished memoirs.
The Royal House of Norway. https://www.royalcourt.no, 2022. Ward, Geoffrey C., ed. Closest Companion: The Unknown Story of the Intimate Friendship between Franklin Roosevelt and Margaret Suckley. Boston: Houghton, 1995.
Winneshiek County Newspaper Archives. https:// winneshiekcounty.advantage-preservation.com, 2022.
About the Author
Rachel Faldet comes from a family of storytellers, some of Norwegian heritage. As a Luther College sophomore in October 1975, she joined an outdoor crowd welcoming King Olav V to campus. His royal visit included participating in the cornerstone-laying ceremony for the college’s new Center for Faith and Life. Rachel is an Emerita member of Luther’s English department, having helped three decades of students tell their true stories.